Get ready to fall in love with SMD

Once you've soldered your first SMD board you'll never want to go back to through-hole. No more board flipping, no more components falling out, no more relentless snipping.

The only additional tools you'll need are a set of tweezers to hold components and a loupe to check your soldering. A chisel tip soldering iron and some thin solder will make things a little easier, but are by no means a requirement.

There are three steps to soldering an SMD component:

Prepare the board to take the component by pre-soldering a pad

Heat the pad with your soldering iron and slide the component in to place with a pair of tweezers